Plug-in vehicles (both hybrid and all electric) need to interface with the electricity grid so that vehicle owners will have safe, secure and convenient access to electricity. Utility companies also need this interface so they can properly manage the electricity demands of these vehicles and properly bill electricity used by these vehicles to their owners.
Such an interface should be flexible, so that it can be used with public, as well as semi-public, vehicle outlets. Public electric vehicle outlets are expected to be made available by local governments, and property and business owners. Availability of outlets may be driven by public policy or the desire to encourage electric vehicle owners to work for or do business with a particular business. For example, shopping malls may install outlets to make their stores a more attractive place at which to shop. Similarly, owners of electric vehicles who reside in multi-family units may not have private access to electrical outlets to charge their vehicles. Such owners may have no choice but to use public or semi-public outlets, for example, within a bank of outlets installed in apartment/condominium parking areas with energy charges billed to the car owner.
Moreover, while owners of private vehicles that own private residences may not need a special interface to charge their cars at their own homes, they may be given incentives to use such interfaces by the local utility offering special, reduced electric vehicle charging rates. Utilities will likely offer these rates during off-peak electricity demand periods. Thus, the interface should be capable of being used with private outlets as well.
Another key issue is security. Any interface should ensure that use with publicly available electric vehicle outlets does not expose outlet owners to energy theft.
A third key issue is controlling the use of the interface with respect to public outlets so that the energy user can be identified and billed for the electricity costs.
A fourth key issue is allowing utility control of vehicle charging behavior. This interface will identify vehicles charging from the grid to the local utility and allow the utility to enable/disable charging based on electricity demands and grid conditions.